This document summarizes the emergence and characteristics of chordates and mammals. It describes how chordates evolved to include fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals, with defining characteristics like a notochord, post-anal tail, pharyngeal gill slits, and dorsal nerve cord. Within mammals, it distinguishes monotremes that lay eggs but produce milk, marsupials whose young develop further in pouches, and placental mammals where development occurs fully internally. Key mammalian systems like skeletal, muscular, circulatory and others are also outlined.